PEKKA LUUKKOLASense of time 5.3.2016 – 26.3.2016

In my works I often traverse the blue-hued landscapes on the shores of the sea and lakes, as I examine the fundamentals of photography - light, time and movement. Most of the works in my exhibition are on the theme of the Milky Way, where I have examined the kinetics of the starry heavens and flying. For my new Flight series, I built a device to imitate the movement of a bird´s wings and integrated it as a visible part of the landscape. In the Sense of time video, I have captured the relationship and movements between the starry heavens and the landscape during a single night.

Time and movement have always been my key objects of interest in photography. Since ancient times, people have been fascinated by the ability of birds to fly and have sought to imitate it. Photographing flight movements and studying the kinetics in conjunction with them, together with the accessories and the actual photography itself, pose the kind of challenges I have sought to overcome in my recent works.

The end result is often a visual simplicity, where all the background work may be often be hidden, but which yet nevertheless requires many attempts and boldness to succeed. Movement and time, and also far-reaching questions in the realm of astronomy, have fascinated me since my youth. In my works, I seek to use the camera to depict something indiscernible to the eye.

Pekka Luukkola

Pekka Luukkola (b.1968) is a photographic artist and researcher who defended his doctoral thesis on technical and artistic quality in photographic art in February at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Luukkola was an Ars Fennica finalist in 2011 and he was awarded 2nd prize in the Fotofinlandia competition in 2008. The visual part of Luukkola´s doctoral thesis, Maiseman aika/Sense of time book, is available at the exhibition. The Sense of time video was earlier shown at Luukkola´s private exhibition at Tampere Art Museum 2012-2013 and can now be seen for the first time in Helsinki.